Farewell to Max Aichler: namesake of the bartender is dead

Max Aichler, who gave the bartender in Kreuzstrasse its name, died at the age of 86.

An obituary.

Kreuzstrasse

- Max Aichler was someone who liked to let it rip.

And at the age of ten, the bartender simply ordered a special train.

With an old locomotive that hauled five wagons from Munich's Ostbahnhof to Kreuzstrasse.

“A man from the railway was there three times beforehand and advised us against it,” recalls Hildegard Aichler.

She laughs.

But when her husband Max Aichler, the bartender, got something into his head, then he did it.

“He was just a great organizer.” And so it happened that a whole horde of party-goers and musicians hopped off the train in Kreuzstrasse to celebrate the big anniversary with the Aichler couple - who ran the restaurant there for ten years.

For four days.

“Back then we had set up a large marquee with space for around 2000 people,” the 85-year-old recalls.

"That was a sensation." At least in 1979.

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Max Aichler was a bartender for many years.

His trademark was the full beard.

© private

Max Aichler, the long-time bartender in Kreuzstrasse, has now died at the age of 86 after a long illness.

Because of Corona, he can only be buried in the closest family circle, regrets the widow.

Aichler was someone who was looking for people.

And people were looking for him.

This sociable veteran was born on June 6, 1934 in Dietramszell and then grew up in Arget with six siblings.

First Aichler learned a carpenter, later he worked in the forest.

He married his Hildegard in 1962, they had two children, Sigi and Rosi, and later two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Together with his Hildegard, Aichler ran a kiosk near Sauerlach at the end of the 1960s.

Because he always wore a bushy full beard back then, people said "we're going to the beard".

A nickname that Max Aichler remained.

Forever.

In 1969 the time had come.

"At that time we took over the inn in Kreuzstrasse," says his wife.

At that time it was still called "Graf Arcosche Gaststätte zur Kreuzstrasse".

But not for long.

Shortly before the opening, Aichler marched to Otto Graf von Arco auf Valley - because the restaurant belongs to the Count's Brewery Arco-Valley - and asked him whether the inn could not be called "Bartewirt".

The count apparently agreed.

That was the hour of birth of the bartender.

When Hildegard Aichler thinks back to the 23 years in which she ran the inn in Kreuzstrasse with her husband, she cries with emotion.

“It was just a good time,” she says.

“The booth was actually always full.” They practically taught themselves to be a host on their own.

The two of them got up at 5:30 a.m. every day, and by 6 a.m. they were in the pub.

"And then it took as long as it lasted." Sometimes until one o'clock in the morning, sometimes until four.

"Sometimes we don't even go to bed." She always stood in the kitchen and cooked what he asked.

“He wrote the menu every day.” By hand.

Some musicians played in the inn all the time.

Because her Max loved the music, even if he was not exactly "a croesus" in the field - apart from a few attempts at clarinet, as his wife reports with a laugh.

But there were also difficult times.

For example, when lightning struck in 1986 and the entire property went up in flames.

“We didn't earn a mark for a year,” remembers the widow.

Only after the tavern was rebuilt did things get better again.

Thomas Furtner, Operations Manager at the Count's Brewery Arco-Valley, also has the bartender in very positive memories: “He was a real primal creature,” he says.

“Not a child of sadness.” About which there are many funny anecdotes to tell.

One that works like this: Once during the carnival season, Aichler came to the brewery disguised as Andreas Hofer and shot around with a fire rifle.

His demand: free beer mark.

“He got that too,” says Furtner and laughs.

Aichler had come to the regulars' table in the bartender almost to the end.

Incidentally, Aichler only took off his trademark, the bushy beard, once.

“For my grandfather's funeral,” says the wife.

"You can't show yourself like that," she scolded at the time.

The bartender didn't care that such a full beard was not in fashion at the time.

But he did it for his Hilde's sake.

"The forehead and nose were tanned," says the 85-year-old.

“Chin and cheeks white.” Since then, Aichler has never shaved off his beard.

And so he is remembered by everyone.